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co-director (mayo clinic)

James A. Levine, MD, PhD

Mayo Clinic

Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology)

James A. Levine is a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic and a world-renowned leader in obesity research and child advocacy. He is also a tenured Professor in ASU’s School of the Science of Health Care Delivery in the College of Health Solutions, in the School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and in the School of Biological and Health Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Levine is an international expert on obesity. In the United States, he has been an invitee to the President’s Panel and the State Department. Internationally, he has consulted with governments around the world.

The author of the non-fiction work “Move A Little Lose A Lot,” he has published more than 150 articles on building effective solutions to obesity for adults and children, including five in the journal Science and Nature. His research has focused on physiological, technological and environmental approaches to help people become more active, decrease cardiovascular risk and become healthier. He has developed multiple body-worn devices that measure physical activity and caloric intake, as well as the desk treadmill, which is in use in some ASU offices.

Levine received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London, and doctor of philosophy and doctor of medicine degrees from the Royal Free Hospital. He was also the Elmore Medical Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK. He did postgraduate internships at the Royal Free Hospital (in medicine), Wellhouse Trust (in surgery) and Mayo Graduate School of Medicine (in internal medicine), where he also was a fellow in endocrinology.

He became a senior associate consultant in endocrinology, nutrition and internal medicine at Mayo Clinic in 1998 and later became a professor of medicine (2004), the Richard Emslander Professor of Nutrition and Metabolism (2006), professor of physiology (2007), and professor of bioengineering (2007). He continues to hold all four positions at the Mayo Clinic.

Levine has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on more than 30 federal grants and contracts. In addition, Levine has won more than three dozen awards across a range of disciplines, including nutrition, biomedical research, tropical medicine, surgery, endocrinology, cardiology, and journalism.

Jim also has crusaded against the abuse of children, and his international best-selling novel about childhood prostitution, "The Blue Notebook," has been published in 27 languages in 34 countries and has effected policy changes concerning child prostitution.

Levine is a member of the Board of the International Society for Missing and Exploited Children. In 2010, Doctors Without Borders commissioned him to visit people living with SIDA (AIDS) in Kinshasa, where the novella he wrote, "Makass," appeared in a collection, "Dignita," with Mario Vargus Llosa, the Nobel laureate. His team has a keen focus on underserved communities with a particular reference to poverty, and he has worked with Native American and Hispanic communities.